


Flicker of Light (Hokage)

by MidoriKurenaiYume



Series: The Wind Became Strong Again (Mata Kaze ga Tsuyoku Natta) [1]
Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Dialogue, Drama, F/M, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Laboratories, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-03
Packaged: 2019-06-30 04:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15744657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidoriKurenaiYume/pseuds/MidoriKurenaiYume
Summary: Arturia is a coroner who works mostly for Kirei Kotomine’s police unit, where Gilgamesh is a consultant for murder cases. Her work keeps her very busy and she never saw a problem with it, at least until she is presented with an unexpected dead body.





	Flicker of Light (Hokage)

**Author's Note:**

> Don't take this too seriously, it's not meant to be a real mystery :) hope you enjoy!!
> 
> Title: from a Kalafina song, part of the album 'Far on the Water' ;)

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Once again, she hadn’t heard him enter her lab, but she had noticed him this time by glancing at her schedule, which was written on the blackboard in the middle of the room. While he was capable of being stealthy when he chose to, his presence was usually difficult to miss.

“Weren’t you supposed to have the afternoon free today?”

Gilgamesh had looked at her schedule as well before speaking, letting his eyes then land on her questioningly, something even accusatory both in them and in his tone.

Arturia didn’t look at him as she took a different graduated pipette to work on the second component. A rapid glance to the side confirmed to her that the sophisticated materials she needed for electrophoresis were exactly where she had left them, ready to be used. Since there was no one else in the lab on this day, it was unlikely they wouldn’t be, but it was always best to double-check everything, a healthy habit in her line of work – or just any kind of work, to be fair.

“I was,” she confirmed vaguely, leaning down slightly to see the minuscule numbers better, carefully checking the amount of substance she was transferring. Her voice was slightly muffled by her mask, but she knew that he could hear her perfectly. “Then there was a homicide.”

She gestured to the dead body lying on a stretcher in the much colder room nearby. It was visible through the glass panels, and it was covered by a grey-green hospital sheet.

“The Tohsaka case?” he asked, but his voice had a different inflection, showing that the question was rhetorical. Given that he was a ‘consultant’ for the investigation department, he was always informed about the latest cases.

The head of the Tohsaka empire had been found dead in his home just the evening before; the rich family had been keeping a low profile and avoided the public eye during the past few months after it had been revealed that they were in a rivalry with another ever wealthier company, the Matous. Their heir, Sakura Matou, famous for her lilac hair, had recently made headlines by using strong words to criticize the Tohsakas, which certainly hadn’t helped with the bad blood already existing between the two powerful companies. The stabbing of Tokiomi Tohsaka could therefore certainly prove to be an intriguing murder case, but as Arturia wasn’t on the investigative team, it wasn’t her job to find out more.

She nodded once, slightly distracted, as she was focused on her work.

“That means you have an autopsy to do now,” he deduced, but raised an eyebrow when she shook her head, now turning to face him for the first time since he had entered the room.

“It’s already done, and my report will be complete once I finish examining these DNA traces. I believe there’s nothing in them as they are likely to belong to the victim, but I’m checking to be safe.” She gestured towards a manila folder on the table, obviously containing her notes. “Since you’re already here, would you mind letting Kotomine know that I’m almost finished, please? He has been calling every hour to monitor any possible progress.”

Gilgamesh completely ignored her words, taking a few steps forward and then waiting for her to put down the pipette and the rest of her equipment. When she was no longer holding any important materials, he leaned forward and slowly but firmly removed her protective glasses and mask.

Before she could snatch them back, he exposed her tired face to his piercing scrutiny.

“Kotomine doesn’t seem to care about the fact that you never get any proper rest, which makes me question why he should be informed of anything… except maybe to make him stop overworking you undeservedly.” His eyes were full of contempt as his fingers went under her chin to lift her face carefully. “He knows perfectly well that there is no rush about this specific case – there was no need to make you work extra hours _again_.”

He stared at her keenly for a few more seconds, before continuing, “Are you going to be free after finishing this report?”

Arturia couldn’t stop herself from automatically avoiding his gaze, which made his fingers leave her cheek, to which they had travelled from her chin.

“I have to work on other samples Kotomine sent me two hours ago–”

“–which he knows perfectly well will only be needed _in two months_ , so why is he making you do it today?”

“He isn’t,” she insisted, suddenly staring straight at him. “I agreed to do it–”

“–but not _today_ , Arturia.” His tone was final. “You may be the head of this department, but that, even though it will surprise you, does _not_ mean that you should work yourself to death for the sake of your job.”

She swatted his hand away.

“That’s not what I’m doing,” she replied evenly. “This is however a period in which many people are on vacation, which means that there’s extra work to do either way.”

“Only because you insist on doing everything immediately, when you could instead distribute it during the week in a much more productive way,” he mordantly countered.

She closed her eyes for a moment, gathering her patience. She didn’t have much work left to do, but it was going to require concentration, therefore she couldn’t let her rapidly growing annoyance overcome her.

“This discussion is utterly useless,” she finally said. “Be reasonable, Gilgamesh: I’m the coroner on the Tohsaka case, and I’m also filling in for two colleagues here at the lab. The pay for extra hours is rather high, therefore I’m certainly not doing this for free. I will be busy for a few more hours, so now be so kind as to let me continue with my work.”

Her head inclined slightly towards the door, making it clear that she was inviting him to leave.

Turning around, she barely had the time to take off her gloves – as she was looking for a new pair in order to complete the experiment – when his hands grabbed her shoulders with just enough force to make her turn once again. Finding herself face to face with him, she couldn’t do or say anything, because the next instant, she was only able to focus on his mouth that was suddenly on hers.

One of his hands left her waist and went to her cheek, cupping it tenderly as his lips pressed more firmly against hers, while the other remained where it was and pulled her entire body closer.

After a moment of disconcertment, Arturia’s eyes slid shut of their own accord and she responded, opening her mouth slightly to be able to kiss him better and deepen the contact on her own terms. He tasted slightly of wine, telling her that he must have recently had one of his favourite drinks.

Her hands reached for him, sinking into his spiked up hair and finding the best angle for them both…

When they separated, her breath was slightly laboured and she could feel her cheeks burning. He wasn’t unaffected either, staring at her intently with his pupils much more dilated than usual.

Arturia turned away from him, looking for her new gloves. She put them on with slightly trembling hands, something she however managed to get under control quickly.

“We should stop doing that every time you come to the lab,” she told him after a few moments of silence, during which he simply kept staring at her. “It’s… unprofessional.”

“But not wrong,” he replied lightly, taking a few steps closer to her once more, this time however not trying to touch her again.

Then he sighed quietly, in annoyed frustration. “Arturia, I’ve been asking you to go out with me for months now. Your reply is always ‘as soon as I’m free’, but you are _never_ free. Today you were supposed to have your first afternoon free in weeks, yet I find you immersed in tests as usual. You promised that today–”

“I have made no promise,” she interrupted him, somewhat harshly. “I said I would go out with you if I had the time, but as you can see, I have work to do.”

From her position next to the equipment, she could not see his face, but she couldn’t help looking up and staring at him once he spoke again, in a much colder tone.

“You _always_ have work that you refuse to organize differently, delegate or just postpone when it’s not urgent,” he almost hissed. “You reject the idea of giving your time to _anything_ that isn’t your work.”

He seemed to contemplate her in a different way, as if seeing her for the first time. “Perhaps I’ve been wasting _my_ time here,” he unexpectedly added then, his voice cutting. “Perhaps _you_ are wasting my time. Maybe waiting and respecting the rules you decided should exist is something that makes no sense if you do this dismissively. You let me kiss you, but you refuse to spend time with me. It’s entirely possible that you are after all not worth it.”

Those words hit Arturia with the strength of a punch to the stomach, instinctively making her stiffen. Gilgamesh didn’t seem to take notice of it though, even when he suddenly came closer once again, leaving her no choice but to meet his gaze.

“Maybe, however… although it’s a very implausible possibility… I’m simply getting impatient. You never reject my touch nor my presence – but only when I come to you. You never come to me, you never show you care at all… which makes me conclude that you don’t, and you are simply playing a game. I will not stand for that.”

He turned away from her, walking to the door and opening it with the clear intention of leaving.

Before closing it behind himself, he met her eyes one last time. “I will be busy during the next few days on the Tohsaka case,” he informed her, his voice normal once again. “Afterwards, I will have a talk with you, regardless of whether or not you have the _time_.”

A second later, he was gone, and Arturia could only stare between the door and the materials in her hands, too stunned to think of any kind of reply.

...

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During the following days, Arturia found herself having inner arguments more often than she liked to admit.

At first, she was full of indignation at Gilgamesh, because of the harsh and unfeeling manner in which he had accused her. She had had to study and work hard to get to her current position; having now a job she genuinely enjoyed, she had little interest in anything outside of it, and he had no right to criticize her choices in such a condemning way.

At the same time, she could not deny the truth in his words: she had never rejected his kisses – she had in fact always been an active and rather enthusiastic participant – and she had also never forbidden him from coming to the lab, instead having short but frequent conversations with him whenever he showed up.

It was equally true that she had never sought him out herself, and she had also never gone out with him; however, whenever he had asked her, she hadn’t refused either. She had simply delayed, without giving a clear answer, which was indeed unfair towards him.

In her defence, she hadn’t done it on purpose; she had actually not minded the idea of going out with him – which was why she had never turned him down – but there was always work to do, and she put that before anything else, especially any kind of free time. It was completely normal for her to work after hours, as it was her choice to do so, and while she could have reduced or delegated her extra work, she had chosen never to do that.

This had been going on for months, she realized after a while. It wasn’t truly surprising for Gilgamesh to have become frustrated with and even offended by her seemingly complete disregard for him and his feelings.

He had the right to request to have a talk with her. She hadn’t done it deliberately, but she had been disrespectful of his constancy and even ambiguous in her behaviour towards him; he deserved to have an honest conversation with her to clarify everything. Perhaps, as was again indeed in his right, he also wanted to break their relationship – or whatever it was – off entirely.

Once she reached those conclusions, right on the day after their confrontation, Arturia would have been ready to go talk with him right away. She knew however that he was involved in the investigation about the Tohsaka murder that, as Kotomine had let her know when he had requested a few additional tests from her lab, had turned out to be much more difficult than they had expected.

She certainly couldn’t go bother Gilgamesh when he was in the middle of such a delicate operation, therefore she endeavoured to wait for as long as was necessary, even when a full week went by without a word from him.

However, she later wished she hadn’t waited at all.

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She had just arrived at the building to begin her workday when she saw Kotomine himself standing next to the entrance of the lab, which she usually opened herself in the morning. She was slightly surprised, since he usually only contacted her through the phone, never bothering to come downstairs from his offices.

Arturia wasn’t good at reading people’s faces, and Kotomine’s expressionless features had never given away anything, but she could immediately see that something wasn’t right.

Giving him a brief greeting, she was about to unlock the door, when Kotomine stopped her with a movement of his hand.

“There’s a body coming from the morgue,” he said slowly, his tone devoid of inflections. “A member of my squad was found dead. He was beheaded and his head hasn’t been found yet. We need an autopsy to be performed on the rest of the body as soon as possible.”

Arturia nodded, becoming more and more wary as he spoke. She was currently the only qualified doctor in the building, as her colleagues were on leave, therefore she was obviously going to be the one to carry out the autopsy.

That didn’t explain Kotomine’s presence there though, and he probably knew what she was thinking, because he took a step back, ready to go back to his own office.

“I came to tell you in person because you are fully capable of being professional, but as far as I know, he was your friend,” his emotionless voice murmured before he disappeared up the stairs.

Arturia’s hands froze around the lab keys.

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As Kotomine had said, she was capable of being professional.

Her face didn’t betray what she was feeling as she took out a new pair of gloves and prepared the scalpel while her assistants measured and weighed the headless body lying on her table – _Gilgamesh’s_ headless and lifeless body.

Arturia didn’t allow herself to take a deep breath as she inwardly prepared herself to go through with the whole procedure. This was her job; this was just another autopsy.

Minutes and then hours passed, as she carefully proceeded with her thorough examination. The more time passed, the more she began to feel confused.

She was familiar with what she had to do, and that, unfortunately, gave her the opportunity to think about what Kotomine had told her while still focusing on her task. He had made it clear that the person who had been found dead was in his squad and was her friend; the only person she knew from his team – and who was, in some ways, someone she could reasonably call a _friend_ – was Gilgamesh.

As far as height and sizes were concerned, he fit the description; she had never seen him naked and therefore didn’t know his body well, but she noticed a few moles that she didn’t recall having seen on him as he was alive, which made her first suspicions arise. His hands, which had so often gone to cup her cheeks, also didn’t seem to be the ones she remembered.

She knew for certain that something was off when it was time to examine the body’s liver, as there wasn’t the slightest trace of alcohol.

Her scalpel almost fell from her hand. This – this dead person _wasn’t_ Gilgamesh.

But she was professional, and she forced her mind to remain focused on the rest of the autopsy, scrupulously writing down every detail as was expected of her.

When she finally could declare her work concluded and let her assistants take the body away, she exhaled, her breath catching in her throat at having to deal with the unexpectedly strong feeling of relief and even joy.

Her immediate reaction would have been to contact Kotomine and inform him of the fact that she was certain that the dead body wasn’t Gilgamesh’s – but something stopped her.

She had completed her autopsy and sent it to him; it wasn’t her job to bring up the fact that the lack of alcohol in his liver made it impossible for him to be Gilgamesh, because as far as she knew, there was only her word that claimed that Gilgamesh loved drinking wine.

Furthermore, there were two _very_ important considerations that her emotions had almost made her forget. One, the fact that the identity of the dead person on whom she had just performed an autopsy was unknown. Two, the current whereabouts of Gilgamesh himself were unknown as well.

The last, most important thing was that she still didn’t know what had truly taken place either. Gilgamesh had been involved in a murder case for the past week, and he had supposedly been found dead this morning. Whatever had happened, it was clear that it was something exceptionally dangerous.

And when things were this dangerous, Arturia knew that she had to be very, very careful about whom she decided to trust – even, or especially, someone like Kotomine.

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**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE don't have high expectations for the sequel - it's rather underwhelming :P  
> Thank you so much for reading!!


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